What's Shell got to celebrate?

We've gatecrashed Shell's swanky party at the National Gallery (for the second year running). This time, we've helped Shell launch a new art exhibit, Annus Horribilis: New works in oil. Shell may have put its Arctic ambitions on hold but we won't stop until the frozen North is put out of their reach.

It's been a disastrous year for Shell. The oil giant started 2012 full of bravado but ended it with head in hands as its oil rig, the Kulluk, sat beached off the Alaskan coast. Its drill ship, the Nobel Discoverer, slipped its anchor in a stiff breeze and failed the most basic safety tests.

When we heard the Shell was chucking a party in London, we asked ourselves what on earth do they have to celebrate? They just wasted $5 billion playing dangerous games in the fragile Arctic!

So our activists popped down to the National Gallery to help Shell apologise for this terrible year.

Shell pays a tiny fraction of their profits to cultural institutions like the National Gallery because it helps tart up their brand. We can't let them get away with that - people need to hear the true story of Shell's dangerous
incompetence. The reputational risks of Arctic drilling
are huge, and we're determined to make sure the right people know about them.

We hung two giant oil paintings of the beached Kulluk outside the entrance and projected messages onto the front of the building. Outside, our smartly dressed activists greeted the guests, apologising on Shell's behalf.

There's a serious message to all this, of course. Shell promised it was Arctic Ready, but instead proved that even the largest oil companies cannot drill safely in the hostile, fragile Arctic seas.

Shell won't be going to the Arctic this year - but it's determined to go back in 2014. That's not good enough. The Arctic is a precious, beautiful place, and we can't let companies like Shell trash it.

President Obama has the power to cancel Shell's permits and make the US Arctic off limits to dangerous oil companies. It's up to us to persuade him to stop Shell and save the Arctic. Let's go.